1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of solid waste management, and more specifically to systems and methods for improving municipal solid waste (MSW) management to maximize use of renewable resources and benefit a community.
2. History of the Related Art
As waste generation continues to grow faster than population, leaders in MSW services must respond to significant challenges. Disposal of a wide variety of materials poses challenges in handling and disposing of waste in varied shapes, sizes, states, and reusable content. Increases in disposal rates, and reduced public acceptance of constructing and operating traditionally-designed MSW facilities create a deficit of MSW landfill space that must constantly be addressed by solid waste management personnel and companies. Unfortunately, the reality of present-day waste management systems is that landfills are viewed as liabilities, both in the economic sense and the community-development sense. The present invention shifts that paradigm from landfill-as-liability to landfill-as-asset which will only increase the environmental health of communities and permit sustainable growth and development.
In one kind of municipal waste management, a private waste management company carries out the oversight and operation of a landfill. The economics of the arrangement generally involve a landfill lease payment from the company to the community, and a waste removal and disposal payment made from the community to the company. As such, communities typically select the waste management company that offers the highest lease payments, and companies typically bid on contracts with sufficient waste volume to maintain their profitability. While this business model has proved reliable in the past, the current pace of waste production requires that both communities and companies take an innovative approach to waste management.
A great deal of the current research and innovation related to MSW management is focused on extending the life and performance of existing landfills. However these types of innovations are generally shortsighted as they merely show how to extend the life of landfills and rather than solve the underlying need to have sustained economic development in our communities. Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for a MSW operation to address the multiple types of waste that are disposed by the public, and further, to provide a waste management solution that more effectively addresses the issue of sustainable economic development. Additionally, there is a need in the art for a system and method that effectively reduce the total volume of waste through increasing the reuse of products as well as the use of beneficial by-products of the waste management process.
A further substantial challenge is the management of solid waste (municipal or not) that can contain hazardous components that threaten public health, safety and the environment. Hazardous waste poses additional public fears and handling/disposal issues for waste management personnel. Therefore, what is needed is a system that provides effective screening and separation of hazardous components in the waste stream, and further provides recovery and reuse solutions as alternatives to disposal of hazardous waste.
An accompanying issue with waste management in general, and specifically in MSW management, is the loss of resources that occurs. The energy required to create products, sustain them throughout use, and ultimately dispose of them are generally lost in the current waste management system. A certain percent can currently be captured through recycling efforts, but on the whole, most “used” products are disposed into a MSW landfill with few options for recovery and use of the energy and/or benefit contained in the disposed MSW. What is needed therefore is a system and method to more effectively capture and use disposed MSW and other waste streams to provide renewable energy sources.
The concept of “sustainable development” and a “sustainable community” has been in existence for years. According to Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, the term “sustainable development” means “any construction that can be maintained over time without damaging the environment; development balancing near-term interests with the protection of the interests of future generations”. A sustainable community provides a better quality of life for current and future residents by optimizing nature's ability to effectively and efficiently function over time. An ideal sustainable community has systems in place to minimize waste, prevent pollution and promote efficiency, and further develops resources to revitalize local economies.
The waste management system is a central component of the infrastructure of a sustainable community. This critical component must be managed by technologies, systems and methods that support and drive sustainable physical environments and communities. Caring for the air, land, water, other natural resources and the public's health is fundamental in attaining the long-term objectives of sustainability and solid waste management. However the reality of the “sustainable community” concept is that this is very difficult to achieve and to date has existed more in theory than in practice. The necessary technologies, systems and methods either do not exist or have not been operated in a synergistic manner to derive the desired economic and environmental benefits and outputs.
While the goals of sustainable development are universally lauded by both private and public entities, the simple economics of the waste management industry often belie any noble intentions. As previously noted, the public views waste management systems primarily as a liability rather than as an asset. This mindset is based largely upon the emissions that are generated by landfills, including leachate and methane gas, which produce a number of unfortunate side effects. The state of the art has not developed a zero-emissions landfill system that is capable of generating assets such as heat and combustible gas.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improvement in the art of landfill design and waste management that will accomplish the twin goals of a zero-emissions facility and the development of usable, renewable resources for the community. In short, what is needed is an approach to MSW management that better supports the concept of “sustainable community” and further can be implemented and operated successfully, as opposed to being a theoretical concept. In addition, what is needed is a system that organizes the necessary technologies, systems and methods and operates them in a synergistic manner to provide the desired economic and environmental benefits and outputs. In sum, there is a need in the art for a system and method for waste management that provides the environmental benefits of sustained development while simultaneously providing the economic basis for pubic and private cooperation.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for a MSW system that is both zero-emissions and asset producing and therefore more appealing and beneficial to communities. The present invention addresses the multiple types of waste that are disposed by the public, and further, provides a waste management solution that more effectively addresses the issue of waning landfill capacity, i.e. the present invention increases the size of each landfill through more effective systems configuration and management. It is a further object of the present invention to provide effective screening and separation of hazardous components in the waste stream, and further provides recovery and reuse solutions as alternatives to disposal of hazardous waste. It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide communities with a system and method to more effectively capture and use disposed MSW and other waste streams to provide renewable energy sources. Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to present these and other goals in a methodology that makes sustainable development possible by benefiting the economic and environmental interests of the parties involved.